


TAR

by vassalady



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: College, Experimentation, Ficlet, Getting Together, M/M, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 16:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5974111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vassalady/pseuds/vassalady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foggy is all about the exciting experimental liberal lifestyle on campus, but when someone from high school drops by, she lets slip the one thing Foggy never wanted Matt to know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	TAR

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a 100 word joke. Whoops.

Foggy was very glad Matt didn’t know him in high school.

When he got to college, it was a chance to remake himself. And he did so to the fullest. He attended rallies, smoked pot, listened to hippy rock, and grew his hair out. He made out with girls and with boys and pretended he didn’t pine desperately to make out with Matt. He handed out condoms, and he tied himself to a tree. 

Except for the pining, it was awesome. He didn’t stick with a lot of it, but the important part was trying it all out.

Matt was impressed. He commented several times that he could imagine young Foggy attending all the clubs and fighting against draconian school policy.

“Well, I did lead a club in my day,” Foggy said, and Matt laughed.

“Knew it. You’ve got leadership written all over you.”

“Thanks.”

Foggy felt ill at the not-quite-a-lie, but it was better than Matt knowing.

Of course, because Foggy’s life generally ended up in smoke, since the universe hated him, that pretense ended the day Debbie Harris dropped by to say hi, catching them on the quad. 

Debbie Harris was the second girl he really liked in a romantic way. They’d dated for a few brief months, but ended it amicably. She and Foggy had written a few times, but he had carefully not mentioned any of his extracurricular activities.

She looked the same as always, well put together, perfect hair, and a smile that made him match it. Foggy, on the other hand, had his hair in a ponytail, was wearing a ratty “Fuck the Patriarchy” tee, and had painted his fingernails the night before. 

This wasn’t the Foggy she knew.

Her smile became strained, but she greeted him warmly nonetheless. “Foggy! It’s so good to see you!”

“Debbie! What are you doing here?”

She waved a hand. “I was in the area, and I thought, oh, why not see how Mr. Nelson is doing? You look…” She didn’t finish that sentence.

“Hi,” Matt cut in, holding out his hand, and with that charming smile he saved only for hot girls (which still baffled Foggy.) “I’m Foggy’s roommate, Matt. If I’d known he had friends like you-”

Debbie greeted Matt with great enthusiasm.

“I’m sorry to say he hasn’t mentioned you much,” Matt continued. “How do you know each other?”

Foggy wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.

“We-”

Foggy interrupted her. “We were classmates.”

Debbie laughed and nudged Foggy’s shoulder. “A little more than that! We were co-presidents of the TARs chapter of our school.”

Foggy didn’t believe in any god, but he really wished he did right now.

He felt Matt tense beside him. “The TARs-?”

“Teen Age Republicans,” Debbie said with a chipper grin.

Matt turned his head in Foggy’s direction. “Well. That’s a surprise.”

“Hey, so, Debbie,” Foggy said, clapping his hands together, “I’d love to catch up, but right now, I’ve got to, uh, study, so how about we arrange something for this weekend, and I’ll see you then?”

Matt frowned, and Foggy couldn’t get him to shut up before he said, “I thought you were going to the Gay an-”

“The game! Yes, the game, will have to skip it, I think. Really, it was great seeing you, Debbie, this weekend, I promise.”

He took Matt’s elbow and began steering him away.

“Foggy Nelson!”

Shit, shit, shit. Debbie was using _that_ voice. The one that she used when she debated. Foggy stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.

She scowled at him. “Since when did you become a jerk?”

“I’m not a jerk-”

Debbie held up a hand, and Foggy shut up. “Can I have a moment with you? Then you can get back to your studying or your game or whatever.”

Matt gave him a brief nod and a not unsubtle tug of his arm. “Traitor,” Foggy muttered, but that only made Matt grin.

They stood several feet away, and Matt politely pretended he was very interested in a sky he couldn’t see. 

“Look, I know I didn’t say I was coming, but why are you blowing me off?”

“I’m not!” Okay, Foggy was, but it also wasn’t what he expected her to say.

She gave him another once-over, and she shook his head. Foggy braced for her anger.

“Are you embarrassed by me?”

That really wasn’t what he was expecting. “No!” Well, yes, in a way, but Foggy couldn’t tell her that. “I just… I’m not who I used to be, okay? And you can’t tell my mom.”

Debbie looked pointedly at his shirt. “I wouldn’t really want to explain that to her anyway.”

Foggy swallowed around a lump in his throat. “No one here knows I used to do the whole Republican thing, okay?”

Debbie pursed her lips. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed. You were good, Foggy. Your speech at the TLC? But really, you’re upset that I let that slip to your boyfriend?”

Foggy instantly reddened. “He’s not!”

Debbie sighed. She put a hand on Foggy’s shoulder and squeezed. It was comforting. There was a time Foggy could talk to her about anything (except sometimes wanting to kiss boys), but that was a long time ago now.

“I’ll overlook whatever liberal icon you’ve become if you lose the shirt and not act like an asshole around me, okay?”

Foggy nodded. That was fair. He did miss Debbie. It would be good to hang out again in person, so long as they kept away from anything political.

They made plans for the weekend, and Foggy promised to not wear any of his activist shirts. Debbie promised not to ask about why the ideological change. Debbie said goodbye to Matt, holding his hand a little too long for Foggy’s liking, and they went their separate ways.

“So,” Matt said when they returned to their dorm. (Foggy did not feel like doing anything after that encounter.) “Young Republicans, huh?”

“Teen Age Republicans,” Foggy corrected. He sighed and ran a hand over his hair. “There. My secret’s out. I was a fuddy duddy TAR who had wet dreams about meeting Reagan and campaigned for Bob Dole.”

“Hmm…” Matt sat on his bed and threw his feet up, leaning back. His head was tilted toward the ceiling when he said, “I don’t know, sounds kind of sexy to me, you dressed in a suit, so young, so earnest, so… clean cut.”

Foggy laughed at that. And then Matt’s words caught up with him. “Sexy? What’s sexy about that?”

“It’s like a sexy nuns sort of thing. But I’m sure you’d be sexier.”

“Matthew Murdock, are you propositioning me? Are you propositioning a Republican me?”

“Roleplay only, I promise. Is it working?”

Foggy’s heart stopped and then started up again, twice as fast as before. He stood up from his chair and walked over to Matt’s bed. “I’m not fond of teases, Mr. Murdock. Is that your official political position?”

Matt didn’t lose his smile, but the joking tone was gone when he said, “It’s a serious policy I’m proposing.”

“I think this can be a bipartisan bill,” Foggy said before leaning down and kissing Matt.

Okay, so there was one good thing about Matt knowing of Foggy’s high school days. But just the one.

Matt did, after all, like to tease in other ways.


End file.
